Video launched by spacecraft maker Space, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the first business spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station. Space, X (A Britannica Publishing Partner), (born June 28, 1971, Pretoria, South Africa), South African-born American business owner who cofounded the electronic-payment firm Pay, Friend and formed Area, X, maker of launch vehicles and spacecraft. He was also among the very first substantial investors in, along with president of, the electrical car producer Tesla. Top Concerns, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Buddy and founded the spacecraft business Area, X.
Elon Musk founded Area, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the ceo and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electric cars. Musk was born to a South African daddy and a Canadian mother. He displayed an early skill for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he produced a computer game and sold it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he was reluctant to support apartheid through compulsory military service and because he sought the higher economic chances readily available in the United States. Musk went to Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1992 he moved to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he founded Zip2, a company that supplied maps and organization directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online financial services business, X.com, which later became Pay, Friend, which specialized in moving money online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to survive, humanity has to become a multiplanet types. However, he was dissatisfied with the terrific cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Space Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to make more economical rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially introduced in 2018), was created to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly twice as much as its largest competitor, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Space, X has revealed the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy first phase would can lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft designed for offering fast transportation in between cities in the world and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring as lots of as 7 astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk looked for to lower the cost of spaceflight by establishing a fully recyclable rocket that could take off and go back to the pad it released from. Starting in 2012, Space, X's Grasshopper rocket made several short flights to test such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was also chief designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to unique material. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long had an interest in the possibilities of electric cars and trucks, and in 2004 he ended up being one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on relabelled Tesla), an electric automobile company established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.